Current Laws of The Game
The current Laws of the Game (LotG) consist of 17 individual laws, each law containing several rules and directions:
- Law 1: The Field of Play
- Law 2: The Ball
- Law 3: The Number of Players
- Law 4: The Players' Equipment
- Law 5: The Referee
- Law 6: The Assistant Referees
- Law 7: The Duration of the Match
- Law 8: The Start and Restart of Play
- Law 9: The Ball In and Out of Play
- Law 10: The Method of Scoring
- Law 11: Offside
- Law 12: Fouls and Misconduct
- Law 13: Free kicks (direct and indirect)
- Law 14: The Penalty Kick
- Law 15: The Throw-In
- Law 16: The Goal Kick
- Law 17: Corner kick
Today, the above 17 laws are less than 50 pages of a 140 by 215 mm (roughly A5-size) pamphlet. In 1997, a major revision dropped whole paragraphs and clarified many sections to simplify and strengthen the principles. These laws are written in English Common Law style and are meant to be guidelines and goals of principle that are then clarified through practice, tradition, and enforcement by the referees.
The actual law book has long contained 50 pages more of material, organized in numerous sections, that contain many diagrams but did not fit with the main 17 laws. In 2007, many of these additional sections along with much of the material from the FIFA Questions and Answers (Q&A), were restructured and put into a new Additional Instructions and Guidelines for the Referee section. This section is organized under the same 17 law points, consists of concise paragraphs and phrases like the laws themselves, and adds much clarifying material that previously was only available from National organizations and word of mouth among referees.
Referees are expected to use their judgement and common sense in applying the laws.
Read more about this topic: Laws Of Association Football
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